Massacre in the West Texas Town of El Paso
| Massacre in the West Texas Town of El Paso | |||||||||
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| Part of Blood in the Machine | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Charity Horace Mistah Jay | Aztechnology | ||||||||
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Farsight Itztli KBC Rabbit Relay |
Andres Gutierrez Orsen Cordova Leopard Guard | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| One of Relay's drones! | Six leopard guard. One blood spirit. | ||||||||
Summary
Charity Horace hired the runners to try to learn more about the past of a man recently captured by another team. Orsen Cordova. Charity knew that he had spent time in El Paso, and a ceremonial obsidian knife found by the other team had suggested - on psychic reading by Doris that it had been used to kill at least one person in El Paso.
The runners accepted the job, and discovered a great deal of Cordova's history, primarily by rescuing a reporter with key research, and getting evidence from the place where Cordova had stayed in El Paso, where he committed a terrible massacre at a church. However, they were left with as many questions as answers. There is certainly more yet to explore!
Background
Itztli had been on two related runs; see this report and this report. In summary, there were a series of kidnappings in Redmond traced back to two men. Both were infected with CFD. The first one found, Andres Gutierrez, was also a blood magician, and Stuffer Shack regional manager. The second one found, Orsen Cordova, was a decker. Andres expected Orsen to help him, when he was captured. Orsen appeared to be trying to complete the blood ritual when caught, despite being a decker. The ritual involved body parts and a cave with Aztech relics in the wall. Also a machine that seemed to be screaming, or possibly playing a recording of someone screaming.
Anders had come to Seattle from Los Angeles. This appeared to be a decision made by the AI riding him, while he was in blackout. Orsen had come to Seattle from El Paso. Again, this seemed to be a decision by the nanites over-writing his personality.
It is unusual for a mage (like Anders) to have CFD, as it is contracted from infected cyber, but he was a type 1 diabetic and had an insulin pump. This device had infected him. It was unclear what had infected Orsen.
Charity is attempting to help the two men get access to a cure, but their personalities are very far gone. All that seemed possible to learn from talking to them had likely already been learned.
The Meet
Itztli and Charity helped explain the background during the meet. Charity's husband was reluctant for them to pursue this matter out-of-nation, but she could not let it go. She paid the runners upfront and offered to cover travel expenses also. She also gave them access to a room in the building where her apartment is located, for planning purposes. It was a somewhat open-ended job. What threads would they pull on? How would they know when they had learned 'enough'?
The Plan
The runners planned the trip logistics, with Relay and Farsight bringing vans. Both had smuggling compartments. Everyone had SINs sufficient to crossing national borders, but they still focused on choosing a route that would minimize the border crossings.
On the way, KBC would do a series of matrix searches to try to help them narrow down their options for research.
And Farsight would study the ceremonial dagger for psychic impressions.
Relay focused on driving his vehicle, and Farsight's when he needed coverage to focus on the magical study.
Itztli and Rabbit made sure they had all the supplies they would need. Rabbit packed demolitions supplies, which KBC thought was an excellent idea.
KBC's initial matrix searching confirmed that Orsen had been in El Paso one year ago. He had left for Seattle sometime between six months ago, and the present. He had also grown up in El Paso prior to that, but there was a gap. He had no siblings. His parents died in the Dragon attack; he did not return for the funeral. There was no obvious sign of personality change before the gap in the timeline. Friends of the family were concerned that he didn't return for the funeral. There was on-going concern about his alcoholism. It seemed that he had been born an otaku, prior to the 2nd crash. But not made the transition to technomancer. There were occasional records of traveling, mercenary, runner style work in the gap. Of particular note, after he returned to El Paso, there was one major news story - a horrific massacre at the Two Pines church. Six people dead, including the bride, groom, maid of honor, best man, and the bride's mother. Others fled. The church seemed a key place to investigate.
An idea for future investigation was where Gutierrez got his insulin pump. Could they confirm any commonality between the two stories? This was never determined.
Farsight's investigation of the obsidian dagger's psychic history confirmed - and permitted him to experience - several uses of the dagger. The last three were in Seattle, and the dagger wielded by Gutierrez, as Charity had thought. Then there was a flash of the dagger being used by Orsen Cordova. There were other users and victims, going back to the Spanish conquest. Of note, Farsight saw that at least one victim returned as an attacker, after having the dagger stabbed into their heart. Was there some aspect of this that allowed people to return from death? A question for blood magic experts, perhaps. That remains unsolved. Gutierrez only appeared in the role of the attacker, stabbing someone.
They would have to continue to plan as they learned more in El Paso.